Nov 09
23
Re: Your comment “So, how do you break your addiction to irrational belief in your imaginary friend in the sky?”
The comment above was left in response to my post: Add Comment and 0 Reactions
Ordinarily, I don’t respond to such (pardon my frankness) worthless additions to the conversation. This comment, however, reminded me of another piece I’d written a while back about my analysis of the “logical” argument for my “friend in the sky. “
I was raised to believe in God and Christianity, but was never really taught (or maybe I just never really learned) why I should believe what I believe. I was also not taught how to defend what I believe when it comes to God, faith, religion, spirituality, etc. It seems to me that this is not a problem unique to me, and I wonder if it may be part of the reason so many are searching and questioning their own lives, faith, religion, and God. It also seems to me to be potentially one reason why so many people are searching for fulfillment through so many different things, be it pornography, careers, religions, money, success, or whatever.
Lets first discuss God. Why do I personally believe that God exists? What evidence, logic, and experience do I have that God exists? I’ll start today with one piece of logic I’ve come across, and save the evidence and experiences for future posts. Christian apologetics is the broad term for using evidence and logic to defend Christianity, and Matt Slick, in his Introduction to Christian Apologetics says of Christian apologetics ” It can include studying such subjects as biblical manuscript transmission, philosophy, biology, mathematics, evolution, and logic.”
I picked up a book in the library recently titled “Christian Apologetics” by Norman L Geisler which includes a very interesting chapter on the logical argument that God exists in the form described in the Christian Scriptures (Keep in mind that this is my restatement of a section containing well over 4000 words on the topic).
Basically, the argument is: I (as a human being on this earth) do exist. I am present and accounted for. I am not infinite, I do have a beginning, and may at any time cease to exist, therefore it is possible for me not to exist. The fact that it is possible for my existence to begin and end can be further defined as a potential existence. My existence is not essential and it changes.
Whatever caused me to exist could not also be finite and non-essential, and also have a finite and non-essential source, because there cannot be an infinite regression of finite, non-essential existences. Some cause (source) had to come first, and that cause has to be infinite with no possibility for non-existence. That cause must also be all-powerful, perfect, and contain all knowledge. It would be appropriate to call this infinitely perfect being “God.”
Let’s compare this above-described God, to the God described in Christian scriptures. Scripture says God has infinite knowledge (all-knowing) (Psalm 147:5), changeless (James 1:17), infinite (Psalm 90:2), all-loving (I John 4:16), and all-powerful (Matthew 19:26). (See a full list of Scriptural attributes of God Here.)
It seems to me to hold true then, that the God described in the Bible can and does indeed exist. Following this, if the God described in the Bible exists, and is perfect, then the instructions he’s given us also “exist,” and are without error. This leads me to take these instructions seriously. This is just one ’small’ argument for the existence of God, but if it gets some folks thinking it’ll be worthwhile.
